A review by ed_moore
1984 (Broadway Edition) by Duncan Macmillan, George Orwell, Robert Icke

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

“Once you finish this book you become a different person. You don’t feel the same. You don’t think the same. It changes everything. And it will always be true” 

I am obsessed with Orwell’s story of 1984 and its themes, that’s a given, however in the past I have struggled with retellings or reimagining of it as I often feel they are just missing something, always not quite playing on the same tune of Orwell’s intentions and message. Macmillan and Icke’s stage adaptation of the story absolutely did not feel this way. It was a very metaphysical staging of the story, where time is unclear, both literally in the absence of history in Orwell’s ‘1984’ but also in the intermingling of multiple timelines across the play, entering and exiting Winston’s memory, playing with the concept of his existence and breaking the fourth wall to blame and involve the audience for a complicity to the dystopia occurring before them. It was so fast paced and cleverly done and completely hit the bleak and confusing style of ‘1984’ yet simultaneously left the idea of hope, an adaptation to Orwell’s grim telling that I felt was a clever inclusion and I was by no means opposed to, especially as it was so unclear. 

Reading this play and imagining the darkness, staging and uneasy effect it would have on audiences only affirmed to me the reasons why I love this story so much and got me so so excited to hopefully work on its coming together in some means (I swear I better get some sort of involvement !!)